M5 East expansion will dump traffic on St Peters

Marrickville Greens Councillor Max Phillips today criticised the M5 East expansion as a disaster for the Inner West, saying that current plans will see the motorway just end at St Peters with nowhere for the traffic to go other than clogging Inner West streets. He also expressed concern that Simpson Park may be ripped up to make way for a widened Campbell Street.

“The M5 East expansion will be a disaster for St Peters, with massive amounts of traffic dumped on streets that will be unable to cope, houses knocked down, and those that remain living in the shadow of a motorway interchange,” said Councillor Max Phillips.

“From the documents released today, it appears that the M5 East will simply finish at Campbell Street, dumping its traffic load, until the rest of WestConnex is built.

“The state government obviously does not know just how congested the streets of St Peters already are, and that they will be unable to cope with having a major motorway dump traffic into the area.

“Widening Campbell Street will impact on existing houses located there as well as Simpson Park. The Inner West already has a shortage of open space, so to lose open space to a motorway is tragic, while the probable compulsory acquisition will impact many residents hard.

“Building new and bigger motorways has been shown both in Australia and overseas to simply add to traffic congestion. WestConnex is a 1950s concept at a time when we should be improving public transport and looking at smarter options to reduce traffic congestion.”

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The Marrickville and Petersham-Newtown Greens are the local groups for members of The Greens political party living in the Sydney suburbs of Dulwich Hill, Enmore, Lewisham, Marrickville, Newtown, Petersham, St Peters, Stanmore, Sydenham and Tempe.

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